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18713.] 



CITY DOCUMENT, 



[No. 33. 



THE PROGRESS OF PROVIDENCE. 



A CENTENNIAL ADDRESS 



ClTlZEfiS OF PROVinENGE, R. L 



Bv HON. SAMUEL GREENE ARNOLD. 



ITH A POEM, 



Bv GEORGE WILLIAM P E T T E S . 



Delivered Jily 4Tn, ISTG. 




PROVIDENCE; 

PROVIDENCE PKKSS CO., I RINTEES TO THE CITV. 
187(). 



r 



F~2 9 



THE CITY OF PROVIDENCE. 



r, E S L V T I N S OF THE CITY COUXCIL. 

[Approvetl July 10, ISTB.] 

RESOLVED, That the city council HEREBr tendek their thanks to 
Hon. Samuel G. Arnold for the oration delivered ev him at the 
celebration of the Centennial Fourth of Julv, and also to George 
W. Pettes, Esq., for the poem recited by him on the same occasion. 

RESOL VED, That the committee of arrangements for said celebra- 
tion are hereby instructed to request a copy of said oration and 

poem, -\ND cause the S.tME TO BE PRINTED IN SUCH MANNER AS THEY' 
MAY DEEM EXPEDIENT, FOR THE USE OF THE CITY COUNCIL. 

A TRUE COPY : WITNESS, 

S.-OIIET, W. BROWS CITY, Clerk. 



CELEBRATION OF THE CENTEKNIAL ANNIVERSARY OF 
THE FOURTH OF JULY. 



l^UBLIC RESOLUTION PASSED BY CONGRESS AND APPROVED 
BY THE PRESIDENT, MARCH 13, 1876. 

Joint Kt'siilntion on the CelfljiMlioii of tlic Centennial in llic Several Counties or Towns. 

Be U resolved by the Hcmite and House of Bepreseiitatives of the United 
Stales of America in Conc/ress assembled : 

That it be, and is hereby recoiiiinendert by tlie Senate aud House of 
Representatives to the people of the several States that they assemlile in 
their several counties or towns on tlie approacliing Ceutemiial Anniver- 
sary of our National Independence, and that they cause to have delivered 
on such day an historical sketch of said county or towu from its forma- 
tion, and that a copy of said sketch may be filed, in print or manuscript, 
in the clerk's office of said county, aud an additional copy, in print or 
manuscript, be filed in the oflice of the Librarian of Congress, to the 
intent tliat a complete record may thus be obtained of the progress of our 
institutions during the First Centennial of their existence. 



STATE OF RHODE ISLAND, &c. 

IX GENER.\I. ASSEMBLY, JANU.\RY SESSION, A. I). 1S7C. 

.Toint Resolution on the Celebration of the Centennial in the Several Clies and Towns. 

Resolved. The House of Representatives concurring therein, that in 
accordauce with the recommendation of the National Congress, the 
Governor be requested to invite the people of the several towns aud cities 



CITY DOCUMENT. No. 3-S. 



of the state to assemble in their several localities on the approachini; 
Centennial Anniversary of our National Independeuce, and cause to ha\e 
delivered on such day, an historical sketch of said town or city from its 
formation, and to have one copy of saidsketcli, in print or in manuscript, 
filed in the clerk's office of said town or city, one copy in the office of the 
Secretary of State, and one copy in the office of the Lil)rariau of Con- 
gress, to the intent that a complete record may thus be obtained of the 
proarress of our institutions during the First Centennial of their existence ; 
and that the Governor be requested to communicate this invitation forth- 
with to tlie several Town and City Councils in the State. 

I certif^' the foregoing to be a true copy of a resolution passed by the 
General Assembly of the Slate aforesaid, on the 20th day of April a. i>. 
1876. 

"Witness my hand and the seal of the State, this L'Tlli day 

[l. s.} of .Vjiril A. D. 1871!. 

JOSHUA JI. ADDEMAN, Secretary of State. 



In accordance witli the request of the (."enera! Assembly, in relation tn 
the celebration of the Fourth of Jidy, by the preparation of historical 
sketches of the several towns and cities, to be delivered on that day, and 
copies of the same to be preserved for future reference, His Excellency 
Governor Li|)iiitt caused to be prepared and sent to the several town 
and city councils of the state, a circular note in the following form : 



STATE OF RHODE ISLAND. 



ExEciTivK Dkpaktmkxt, I 
Providence, April 27th, 187(!. J 



To the Hunornhh Tourii Council of tlie Toiou of 

Gbntlemen : — I have the honor hei-ewitli to enclose a duly certified copy 
of a resolution pa.ssed by the General Assembly at its recent session, re- 
questing me to invite the people of the several towns and cities of the 
state, to assemble in their several localities on the approaching Centennial 
Anniversary of our National Independence, and cause to have delivered 
on such day an historical sketch of said town or city from its formation. 



CENTENNIAL. 



By pursuing the course suggested by the resohitiou of the Geiioral 
Assembly, the people of the state will derive an amount of iuforniatiou 
which will be invaluable to the present generation, as showing the 
wonderful progress of the several towns and cities since their foundation. 

It will also be of great value to future generations wlieu the materials 
for such sketches now accessible will have been lost or destroyed by acci- 
dent, or become more or less effaced and illegible from time. 

Therefore, in pursuance of the request of the General Assembly, I re- 
spectfully and eainestl}-, through you, invite the people of your town to 
carry out the contemplated celebration on the fourth day of July next 



HEXKY LIPPITT. Governor. 



ADDRESS 



r I "10 trace the causes that led to the American Eevo- 
-*- bition, to narrate the events of the struggle for 
independence, or to consider the effect which the estab- 
lishment of "the great Republic" has had upon the 
fortunes of the race in other lands — these have been the 
usual and appropriate themes for discourse upon each 
return of our national anniversary. And where can we 
find more exalted or more exalting subjects for reflec- 
tion? It is not the deed of a day. the events of a vear, 
the changes of a century, that explain the condition of 
a nation. Else we might date from the fourth of July, 
1776, the rise of the American people, and so far as we 
as a nation are concerned, we might disregard all prior 
history as completely as we do the years beyond the 
flood. But this we cannot do, for the primitive Briton, 
the resistless Roman, the invading Dane, the usurping 
Saxon, the conquering Norman, have all left their 
separate and distinguishable stamp upon tlie England 
of to-day. As from Cu?dmon to Chaucer, from Spenser 
to Shakspeare, from Milton to Macaulay, we trace the 
progress of our language and literature from the unin- 
telligible Saxon to the English of our time ; so the 



8 CITY DOCV.VKXT. No. 33. 

devolopnicnt of political ideas has its great eras, chiefly 
written ill blood. From the fall of Boadicea to the 
landing of Ilcngist, from the death of Harold to the 
triumph at Kunnymcde, from the wars of the Hoses to 
the rise of the Keformation. from the fields of I'.dgehill 
and Worcester, through the restoration and expulsion 
of the Stuarts down to the days of George III, we may 
trace the steady advance of those notions of society and of 
government which culminated in the act of an Ameri- 
can Congress a century ago proclaiming us a united and 
independent people. AVhen the barons of John assem- 
bled on that little islet in the Thames to wrest from 
their reluctant king the rights of Magna Charta, there 
were the same spirit, and the same purpose that pre- 
vailed nearly six centuries after in the Congress at 
rhiladelphia. and the actors were the same in blood and 
lineage. The charging cry at Dunbar, '• Let God arise 
and let His enemies be scattered," rang out a hundred 
and twenty-five years later from another Puritan camp 
on Bunker hill. So history repeats itself in the ever- 
recurring conflict of ideas, with the difference of time 
and ])lace and people, and with this further difference 
ill tlie result, that while in ancient times the principal 
characters in the historic drama were the conqueror, 
the conquered and the victim, these in modern days 
become the oppressor, the oppressed and the deliverer. 
Charles Stuart falls beneath Cromwell and Ireton, 
George HI. yields to "Washington and Greene, serfdom 
and slaverv vanish before Romauoft" and Lincoln. 



ADDRESS. 



But we must turn from this wide field of history to 
one of narrower limits, to one so small that it seems 
insignificant to that class of minds which measures 
states only by the acre, as cloth by the yard ; to those 
men who, to be consistent, should consider Daniel 
Lambert a greater man than Napoleon Bonaparte or the 
continent of Africa a richer possession than Athens in 
the days of Pericles. There are many just such men, 
and the materialistic tendency of our time is adding to 
their number. It is in vain to remind them that from 
one of the smallest states of antiquity arose the philo- 
sophy and the art that rule the world to-day. 
Judea should have been an empire and Bethlehem a 
Babylon to impress such minds with the grandeur of 
Hebrew poetry or the sublimity of Christian faith. But 
for those to whom ideas are more than acres, men 
greater than machinery, and moral worth a mightier 
influence than material wealth, there is a lesson to be 
learned from the subject to which the act of Congress 
and the resolutions of the General Assembly limit this 
discourse. And since what is homely and familiar 
sometimes receives a higher appreciation from being 
recognized abroad, hear what the historian of America 
has said of our little commonwealth,* that " had the 
territory of the state corresponded to the importance 
and singularity of the principles of its early existence the 



* History of Ihe United States, by George Bancroft, vol. 1, pp. 3S0. Boston 
1867. 



10 CITY DOCUMENT. Ko. 33. 

World would hinc hiH'ii tilli'd willMvoudci' at tiic phcno- 
iiiciia (if its history." Hoar too a loss i'aniiliar voice 
iVdiii 1h vdud the soa, a (icTiuaii writi i- oi" tlu" philoso- 
l)hy of history. Kocitiui;- tlir iJiinciplrs of Kogor 
AN'illiauis, tlu-ir successful cstahlisluucut in Ivhodc 
Ishiud, and their sul)se(|uent trinnii>h he says: •■ 'I'hey 
have <jiven laws to one (inaiter of the i>lohe, and, 
dreaded Inr tlu'ir imual influence, the} stand in the 
hackfjjround of e\ery Democratic struj;gle in 1 .urope."'|" 
It is of our ancestors, people of l'ni\ idenci'. that these 
Avoids were written, and of them and their desceiuUints 
that 1 am I'alled to speak. 

To condense two hundred and forty ycvus of historv 
within an hour is simply impossihle. N\ e can only 
touch u|)on a few salient points, and illustrate the pro- 
gress of I'rovidence hy a very few striking statistics. 
Passing over the disputed causes which led to the 
l)ani^hmeut of Roger \N"illianis from Massachusetts, we 
conictotlie undisputed fact that there existed at that time 
a close alliance hetween the church and the State in the 
colony whence he fled, and tliat he severed tlnit union 
at once and forever in the city which he founded. 
I'oets had dreamed and pliilosopliers had fancied a state 
of society where men were free and thought was un- 
trammeled. Sir Thomas More and Sir IMiilip Sydney 
had written of such things. Utopias and Arcadias had 
their i>lace in literature, hut nowhere on the broad earth 

t IntiniUii'llim to till' ni>toiy of Uio XIX CiMitmy, (.'. ti. lirrviuus, Professor 
of Uistorj- In the I'nlveisity of Heidelberg, I.omlon, iSM, p. tw. 



ADDRESS. 11 



had these ideas assumed a jjiactical form till the father 
of Providence, the founder of Rhode Island, transferred 
them from the field of fiction to the domain of fact, and 
changed them from an improbable fancy to a positive 
law. It was a transformation in politics — the science 
of applied philosophy — nn)re complete tlian that by 
which Bacon overthrew the system of Aristotle. It 
was a revolution the greatest that in these latter days 
had yet been seen. From out this modern Nazareth, 
■whence no good thing could come, arose a light to 
enlighten the world. The " great Apostle of religious 
freedom " here first truly interpreted to those who sat 
in darkness the teachings of his mighty master. The 
independence of the mind had had its assertors, the 
freedom of the soul here found its champion. We 
begin, then, at the settlement of this city, with an idea 
that was novel and startling even amid the philosophi- 
cal speculations of the seventeenth century, a great 
original idea which was to compass a continent, " give 
laws to one quarter of the globe," and after the lapse 
of two centuries to become the universal projjcrty of 
the western world by being accepted in its complete- 
ness by that neighboring State to whose persecutions 
Rhode Island owed its origin. Roger Williams was the 
incarnation of the idea of soul liberty, the town of 
Providence became its organization. This is history 
enough if there Avere nought else to relate. Ports- 
mouth, Newport, and Warwick soon followed with their 



12 CITY DOCUMENT. ]So. 33. 

antinomiaii settlers to carry out the same principle of 
the iinderived independence of the soul, the accounta- 
biHty of man to his Maker alone in all religious 
concerns. After the union of the four original towns 
into one colony under the Parliamentary patent of 1()43, 
confirmed and continued by the Royal charter of 16(53, 
the history of the town becomes so included in that of 
the colony in all matters of general interest that it is 
difficult to divide them. The several towns, occupied 
chiefly with their own narrow interests present little to 
attract in their local administration, but spoke mainly 
through their representatives in the colonial assembly 
upon all subjects of general importance. It is tliere 
that we must look for most of the facts that make 
history, the progress of society, the will of the people 
expressed in action. To these records we must often 
refer in sketching the growth of Providence. 

It was in June, 1636, that Roger Williams with five 
companions* crossed the Seekonk to Slate rock, where 
he was welcomed by the friendly Indians, and pursuing 
his way around the headland of Tockwotton, sailed up 
the Moshassuck, then a broad stream skirted by a dense 
forest on either shore. Attracted by a natural spring 
on the eastern bank, he landed near what is now the 
cove, and began the settlement which, in gratitude to 
his Supreme Deliverer he called Providence. He had 
already purchased a large tract of land from the natives, 

* William Harris, John Suiitli, Fraiieis Wickes, Thomas Angel!, Joshua Veriu. 



ADDBESS. 13 



which was at first divided with twelve others, "and 
such as the major part of us shall admit into the same 
fellows!) ip of vote with us," thus constituting thirteen 
original proprietors of Providence, f The first 
division of land was made in 1 638. in whirli fifty-four 
names appear as the owners of '■ home lots" extend- 
ing from Main to Hope streets, besides which each 
person had a six acre lot assigned him in other parts of 
the purchase. The grantors could not sell their land 
to any but an inhabitant without consent of the town, 
and a penalty was imposed upon those who did not 
improve their lands. The government established by 
these primitive settlers was an anomaly in history. It 
was a pnre democracy, which for the first time guarded 
jealonsly the rights of conscience. The inhabitants, 

'•masters of families," incorporated themselves into a 

to 
town and made an order that no man should be molested 

for his conscience. The people met monthly in town 
meeting and chose a clerk and treasurer at each meet- 
ing. The earliest-written compact that has been 
preserved is without date, but probably AA^as adopted in 
1637. It is signed by thirteen persons.* W'c have 

t These were Roger Williams. Stukely Westcott, William ArnoM, Tlinmns 
James, Robert Cole, John Throekraorten. WlUiiim Harris, WilliaTii Carpenter, 
Thomas OIney, Francis Weston, Richard Waterman, Ezekiel Holyman, 

* ■• We whose names are hereunder, desirous to Inhabit in the town of Trovi- 
dcnce, do promise to subject ourselves in active or passive obedience to all such 
orilers or agreements as shall be made for public good of the body in an orderly 
way by the major assent of the present inhabitants, masters of families, incorpo- 
rated together into a town fellowship and such others whom they shall admit 



14 CITY DOCUMENT. No. 33. 

not time to diiiw a picture of these primitive meetings 
held beneath the shade of some spreading tree, where 
the fathers of Providence discussed and decided the 
most delicate and difficult jiroblems of practical politics, 
and reconciled the recpiircments of life with principles 
then unknown in popular legislation. Tlie records are 
lost, and here and there only a fr.igment has been pre- 
served by unfriendly hands to give a hint of tiiose often 
stormy assemblies where there were no precedents to 
guide and only untried principles to be established by 
the dictates of common sense. Of these the case of 
"N'erin, reported by Winthrop, is well known, wherein 
liberty of conscience and the rights of woman were 
both involved with a most delicate question of family 
discipline. It is curious enough that one form of the 
subject now known under the general name of woman's 
rights, destined more than two centuries later to become 
a theme of popular agitation, should here be fore- 
shadowed so early in Rhode Island, the source of so 
many novel ideas and the starting point of so many 
important movements. 

Iveligious services had no doubt been held from the 
earliest settlement, but the first organized church was 
formed in 1()3S, the first Baptist church in America. 

The growth of the town soon made a pure democracy 

unto them, only in civil tliinffs." Signoil by Riclinnl Soott, Willinm Reynolds, 
John Fioltl, Clnul lirown, John Warren, (joorjjc KiclvHrd, Edwaril CO])e. Thoinjts 
An^roll, Thomas Han-i;*, Francis Wickes, Benedict Arnold, Joshua Winsor, 
William Wickendeu. 



ADDBESS. 15 



impracticable, and in 1640 five "disposers" were 
cho5en to raanas^e its affairs who were to meet montlilv 
and to report at qnarterly town meetings, when a new 
election was to be held. This system lasted for many 
years. ^leanwhile the town had increased in forty 
years to about three hundred souls, when the first great 
calamity resulted in its almost complete destruction 
during Philip's war. Most- of the inhabitants had fled 
to Newport for refuge. Only twenty-eight remained, 
among whom was Mr. Williams, who vainly attempted 
to dissuade the infuriated Indians from the attack. It 
was on the '29th of March. 1676. The north part of 
the town above Oluey street, then the most settled por- 
tion, was utterly destroyed. Fifty-four buildings were 
burnt. But one house, now known as the Whipple 
house, on Abbott's lane, escaped. This house ought to 
be owned by the city, restored to its original plan, which 
was altered to its present form many years ago, and 
preserved as a perpetual memorial of the early days of 
Providence. In IGNl, the General Assembly met in 
Providence for the first time under the new charter ; 
but three years later (1(584) the autumn sessions were 
appointed to be held alternately in Warwick and Provi- 
dence. In the absence of any stated census, we can 
only infer the positive growtii of the town from its 
relative wealth, as shown in various colonial assess- 
ments. The earliest of these was in 1647, to raise £100 
as a gift to Mr. Williams for obtaining the charter. Of 



16 CITY DOCUMENT. No. 33. 

this sum, Newport paid one half, Portsmouth thirty and 
Providence twenty pounds. Four-fifths of the strength 
of the colony Avas then on the island. Warwick was 
at that time too feeble to assist. Twelve years later 
(1()59) on a tax of fifty pounds, Newport paid two- 
thirds, Portsmouth one-fifth, and of the remaining two- 
fifths Providence paid eleven pounds, and AVarwick 
nine pounds. Newport had doubled upon Portsmouth 
while Providence had gained upon the other two towns. 
Five years later (1664:) six hundred pounds were voted, 
of which Newport was assessed two hundred and forty- 
nine, Providence and Portsmouth one hundred each, 
Warwick eighty, and the balance of seventy-one pounds 
upon the newer settlements in Narragansett and on 
Conanicut and Block Islands. 

A comparison of the levies of two taxes, each of 
three hundred pounds, one in 1670, the other in 1678, 
fairly illustrates the ruin wrought by the war on the 
mainland towns. In the first of these, Newport was 
assessed one hundred and twenty-three pounds, Provi- 
dence and Portsmouth fifty-one each, Warwick thirty- 
two, Kingstown sixteen, Block Island fifteen and Conani- 
cut twelve pounds. In the latter, Newport was charged 
with one hundred and thirty-six pounds, Portsmouth 
sixty-eight, the other two islands, twenty-nine each, 
Providence ten pounds, Warwick eight, Kingstown 
sixteen, Greenwich and Westerly two each. Thus the 
two towns on Aquidneck paid over two-thirds of the 



ADDBESS. 17 



whole levy, and the three islands together paid seven- 
eighths of it, and the five mainland towns less than 
one-eighth, while the share of Providence was one- 
thirtieth. So great a disproportion never existed before 
or since. 

Twenty years later (1698) this liad disappeared in 
the reviving growth of the town, for on a tax of eight 
hundred pounds Providence was charged with one 
hundred and twenty-eight pounds, or about one-fifth of 
the whole. The number of enrolled militia in New 
England about 1688, according to returns made by Sir 
Edraond Andros, was something over thirteen thousand, 
of whom eight hundred were in Rhode Island, and of 
these one hundred and seventy-five, or more than one- 
fifth were in Providence. Twenty years later (IT 08), 
when the first census ever taken in the colony, was 
made by order of the Board of Trade, the force, includ- 
ing all males between sixteen and sixty years of age, 
was 1362. This had increased in 1730, when the next 
census was taken by the same authority, to 1900 men, 
and the population of the colony had grown from about 
7,200 to 18,000. Up to this time Providence incluc^ed 
the whole of the present county except Cumberland. 
It was now divided into four towns, and its limits were 
reduced to what are now included in the city and the 
towns of Cranston, Johnston and North Providence. 
In 1748 the colony had grown to over 34,000, of whom 
Newport had 4640, and Providence 3452, and was. 



18 CITY DOCUMENT. No. o3. 

gaining rapidly on the other towns. Seven years later 
( 1 755), the last census, under the orders of the home 
government, was taken in view of the war with France, 
which, on this continent, had already begun, although 
not yet formally declared. The colony had increased 
six thousand in that time, and the military force num- 
bered 8"26"i. Providence had 3159 inhabitants, and 
could equip 681 men. It had just been again reduced 
in territory by the incorporation of Cranston (1754). 
Johnston was set off in 1759, and the organization of 
North Providence, in 1 T65, reduced it to the limits which 
it retained till a few years ago, when the annexatioji of 
the Ninth and Tenth "Wards commenced the era of 
enlargement. A census of the town taken at the close 
of 1767 showed the population to be 295)5, of whom 
911, occupying one hundred and two houses, were on 
the west side of the riA er. Two years later, (February, 
1770,) an attempt w'as made still further to divide the 
town by incorporating the west side of the ri\er as a 
separate town, under the name of Westminster, but the 
Assembly rejected the petition. The next general 
census was that of 1774, taken with much care, by 
order of the Assemblj-, one man being appointed for 
the purpose in each town. The entire population was 
nearly sixty thousand. Providence had 4321 inhabi- 
tants, 655 families, with 421 dwelling houses. The 
old market house, now " the City Building," had been 
built bv lotterv the vear before. The increase in the 



ADDRESS. 19 



population had been very small since the census of 
1T4S. owing to the divisions just mentioned. A quarter 
of a century had added less than nine hundred people, 
an annual increase of barely one per cent. But the 
country towns that had been set off since 1730 show a 
greater prosperity, numbering at this census nearly fif- 
teen thousand, and the whole county of Providence 
considerably exceeded Newport county in population. 
At this census only those actually at home were 
counted. Seamen and other absentees were omitted. 

Here on the threshold of the great struggle for inde- 
pendence we will pause in our summary of material 
progress to see what was engaging the attention of the 
little hamlet that had already done so much for man- 
kind, and was now pledging its life-blood to accomplish 
yet more. From the earliest days of the colony to the 
close of the recent civil strife, the war record of the 
State has been a brilliant one. As early as 1655 in the 
Dutch war she did more than the New England Con- 
federacy, from which she had been basely excluded. 
Her exposed condition, by reason of the Indians, 
fostered this feeling in the first instance, and long, habit 
cultivated the martial spirit of the people till it 
became a second nature. Her maritime advantages 
favored commercial enterprise, and the two combined 
prepared her for those naval exploits which in after 
years shed so much glory on the State. The three 
Indian wars, the three wars with Holland (165"2-8, 



20 CITY DOC U 31 EXT. No. 33. 

1667, 167-2-4), and the two with France (1667, 1690), 
in the seventeenth century, tnc three iSpanish (170'i-13, 
1739-48, 1762-3), and the three French wars (1702-13, 
1744-8, 1754-63), of the eighteenth, had trained the 
American colonies to conflict and prepared them for 
the greater struggle about to come. At the outbreak 
of the fourth inter-colonial war, known as the " old 
French war," this colony, with less than forty thousand 
inhabitants and eighty-three hundred fighting men, sent 
fifteen hundred of these npon various naval expedi- 
tions, besides a regiment of eleven companies of infantry, 
seven himdred and fifty men nnder Col. Christopher 
Harris, who marched to the seige of Crown Point. 
Thus more than one-quarter of the eff"ective force of 
the colony was at one time, on sea and land, in priva- 
teers, in the royal fleets, and in the camp, learning that 
stern lesson which was soon to redeem a continent. 
Is it surprising then that when the ordeal came the 
conduct of Rhode Island was prompt and decisive ? It 
is said that small States are always plucky ones, and 
Rhode Island confirmed the historic truth. When the 
passage of the sugar act and the proposal of the stamp 
act were known in America, a special session of the 
General Assembly was called (July 30, 1764), and a 
committee for correspondence with the other colonies 
was appointed to devise measures lo procure the repeal 
of the former, and to prevent the passage of the latter. 
The first case of armed resistance to the obnoxious 



ADDRESS. 21 



revenue acts took place at this time. H. B. jSL's schooner 
St. John was fired upon from tlie fort at Newport by 
order of two of the magistrates. '• The rights of the 
colonies examined," a pamphlet by Gov. Hopkins, 
submitted to this Assembly for approval, was among 
the very earliest of those stirring appeals that Avere 
soon to summon the young men of America to arms. 
The next year occurred the second overt act against the 
British crown in the burning at Newport, (June 4, IT60), 
of a boat belonging to H. B. M.'s ship Maidstone, in 
revenge for the forcible impressment of the crew of a 
brig which had arrived that day from Africa. The 
passage of the stamp act (February 27, 17(35), roused 
the spirit of resistance throughout America to fever 
heat. But amid all the acts of assemblies, and the 
resolutions of town meetings, none went so far or spoke 
so boldly the intentions of the people as those passed 
in Providence at a special town meeting (August 7, 
1765), and adopted unanimously by the General Assem- 
bly (September 1(5). They pointed directly to an absolu- 
tion of allegiance to the British crown, unless the 
grievances were removed. The day before the fatal 
one on which the act was to take effect, the Governors 
of all the colonies, but one, took the oath to sustain it. 
Samuel Ward, " the Governor of Khode Island stood 
alone iu his patriotic refusal," says Bancroft. Nor was 
it the last as it was not the first time that Rhode Island 
stood alone in tlie van of progress. Non-importation 
agreements were everywhere made. The repeal of the 



22 CITY DOCUMENT. No. 33. 



odious act (February 22, 17i)()), came too late, coupled 
as it was with a declaratory act asserting tlie right of 
Parliament "• to bind the colonies in all cases." Then 
came a new development of patriotic fervor instituted 
by the women of Providence. Eigliteen young ladies 
of leading families in the town met at the house of Dr. 
Ephraira Bowen, (March 4, 1766), and from sunrise till 
night, employed the time in spinning ilax. These 
" Daughters of Liberty," as they were called, resolved 
to use no more British goods, and to be consistent they 
omitted tea from the evening meal. So rapid was the 
growth of the association that their next meeting was 
held at the Court House. The " Sons of Liberty " 
were associations formed at this time in all the colonies 
to resist oppression, but to Providence belongs the 
exclusive honor of this union of her daughters for the 
same exalted purpose. This is the second time we 
have had occasion to notice that woman has come con- 
spicuously to the front in the annals of Providence, 
when great principles were at stake. But we claim 
nothing more for our women than the same spirit of 
self-denial and lofty devotion that the sex has every- 
where shown in the great crises of historv. The last 
at the cross and the first at the sepulchre, tlie spirit 
and the blessing of the Son of God have ever rested in 
the heart of woman. 

Side by side with the struggle for freedom grew the 
effort for a wider system of education. It was pro- 



ADDRESS. 23 



posed to establish four free public schools. This was 
voted dowu by the poorer class of people who would 
be most benefited by the movement. Still the measure 
was partially carried out, and a two-story brick build- 
ing was erected (176{^). The upper story was occupied 
for a private school, the lower, as a free school. 
Whipple hall, which afterwards became the first district 
school, was at this time chartered as a private school in 
the north part of the town, and all the schools were 
placed in charge of a committee of nine, of ^vhom the 
Town Council formed a part. The next year a great 
stimulus was given to the educational movement in the 
town. Four years had passed since Rhode Island 
college was established at Warren, and the first class of 
seven students was about to graduate. Commencement 
day gave rise to the earliest legal holiday, in our history. 
A rivalry among the chief towns of the colony for the 
permanent location of what is now Brown University, 
resulted in its removal two years later (1774) to Provi- 
dence. This now venerable institution, whose founda- 
tion was a protest against sectarianism in education, 
has become the honored head of a system of public and 
private schools, which for completeness of design, for 
perfection of detail, and for thoroughness of work, may 
safely challenge comparison with any other oi'gauized 
educational system in the world. 

Hostility to the revenue acts of Great Britain became 
yearly more pronounced, and was evinced in acts of 



24 CITY DOCUMENT. No. 33. 

greater boldness. H. B. M.'s armed sloop liberty 
was sunk and her boats burnt (July 19, 1769), at New- 
])ort. The St. .Jolin had been fired upon. The Maid- 
stone's boat was burnt. 'J"he Liberty was scuttled 
and all her boats burned. As yet no blood had been 
shed on either side. Theie were still hopes of a 
peaceable adjustment of difficulties. I'he year 1771 
was one of unusual quietness. It was the lull before 
the storm. Narragansett Bay was the rendezvous of a 
British fleet of ten vessels of war, one of which, the 
schooner Gaspee, of eight guns, was destined to light 
the tire of successful revolution. The annoyances 
caused by the arbitrary seizure of coasters engaged in 
lawful trade, as well as of vessels ihat were i)roperly 
amenable under the revenue acts, had become intoler- 
able. Tlie people of Providence, with some from 
Bristol, resolved on her destruction. On the night of 
the 9th of June, 1772, Capt. Abraham Whipple, with 
eight long boats of Ave oars each, captured and burnt 
the vessel. Lieut. Uuddingstou, the commander, was 
wounded in the tight, and his was the first British blood 
shed in the struggle for independence. In the flames 
of the burning Gaspee w'as consumed the last hope or 
wish for pardon, and the colony now ])repared quietly, 
but firmly for the inevitable war. The Revolution had 
begun. Two years of increasing turmoil passed, when 
on the 17tli of May, 1774, the townsmen assembled to 
recommend the last remaining act esseirtial to a union 



ADDRESS. 25 



of the colonies — the Continental Congress. The idea 
of a Congress had become familiar to the people, but 
as yet no official action had been taken by any corpo- 
rate body to carry it into practice. To the town of 
Providence is due the honor of jniority in this national 
movement. A few Aveeks later tlie Assembly of Rhode 
Island was likewise the first to elect delegates to that 
Congress. At the same town meeting another illus- 
trious action was accomplished. Six negroes had 
become the property of the town. It was voted that 
'• it is unbecoming the character of freemen to enslave 
the said negroes," and that " as personal liberty is an 
essential part of the natural rights of mankind," a 
petition should be sent to the General Assembly to pro- 
hibit further importation of slaves, and to declare that 
all negroes born in the colony should be free after a 
certain age. A Continental Congress and freedom to 
the slave — glory enough for one town meeting in Provi- 
dence, even if there were no more to add. And both 
were definitely acted upon by the Assembly four weeks 
later. Military organizations were at once perfected. 
The Providence county Artillery Avas named the "Cadet 
Company," and officered as a regiment, and the First 
Light Infantry Company of one hundred men was 
chartered. To these were added in Providence in the 
autumn a grenadier, an artillery and a cavalry corps, 
and in the ensuing spring, upon news of the battle of 
Lexiu" ton, two of these were combined as the Providence 



26 CITY DOCUMEXT. No. o3. 

United Train of Artillerj-. One thousand men marched 
from Providence to the scene of strife, and an " army 
of observation " of fifteen hundred men was voted by 
the Assembly to be raised at once. We cannot follow 
the course of our arms through the long conflict that 
ensued even if the part which Providence took were 
not so blended with that of the state as to be insepar- 
able from it. and hence, perhaps, is inappropriate for 
this occasion. But two or three points must be referred 
to. One, the capture on the 15th of June, 1715, of 
the armed tender of the frigate Hose by the war sloop 
of the colony, commanded by Capt. Whipple, who on 
that occasion had the honor of discharging the first gun 
upon the ocean at any part of his Majesty's navy in the 
American Revolution. It was then that there occurred 
between the two commanders that terse correspondence 
of Spartan brevity and directness — "You, Abraham 
Whipple, on the lUth June, 1772, burned His 
Majesty's vessel, the Gaspee, and 1 will hang you at 
the yard arm. James Wallace." " Sir James Wal- 
lace. Sir : Always catch a man before you hang him. 
Abraham Whipple." The aftair of the Gaspee three 
years before, Avas the true " Lexington of the seas," 
and this of the Rose tender was the Bunker Hill. The 
colony at once ordered two war vessels to be built. 
This was the commencement of the American navy. 
The harbor was fortified at Field's and Fox Points, and 
a beacon was erected on Prospect hill. Congress, at 



ADDRESS. 27 



the suggestion of Rhode Island, organized a Continen- 
tal navy, and two of the frigates, the Warren of thirty- 
two and the Providence of twenty-eight guns, were 
built in Providence and launched in May, 1776. Esek 
Hopkins was commander of the first American fleet 
which sailed February 17, 1776, and captured Nassau, 
March 3d. The last Colonial Assembly met in Provi- 
dence, May 1, 1776, and on the 4th of May passed the 
final act abjuring allegiance to the British crown — a 
declaration of Independence which constitutes Rhode 
Island, by two mouths, the oldest independent State in 
America. The four delegates from this town to that 
immortal Assembly were Dr. Jonathan Arnold, Amos 
Atwell, John Browii and John Smith. The Act of 
Independence is in the handwriting of l)r. Arnold, 
afterwards a member of the Continental Congress. The 
occupation of Newport by the British troops caused the 
sessions of the Assembly to be held in Providence for 
the next four years. Congress proposed a convention 
of the New England States to be held in Providence, 
to consider the questions of currency, and how to sus- 
tain the national credit. This convention (December 
'27) opposed the issue of paper money, and advised that 
taxation and loans at five per cent, be adopted, measures 
that unfortunately for the country, and especially for 
this State, were not carried into eff'ect. At the close of 
the war. Providence was the rendezvous of the French 
army under Rochambeau. The camp of the second 



28 CITY DOCITMEXT. Xo. 33. 

division may be traced on the west side of the Paw- 
tucket road extending for some distance above North 
street. Tlie proclamation of peace was celebrated in 
Providence with great formality and rejoicing. A ser- 
mon by Rev. Enos Hitchcock and an oration by Hon. 
Ashcr Robbins in the now venerable church whcic we 
are to-day assembled, formed part of the proceedings 
(April 25, 1783). Even more jubilant were the people 
of Providence when the ninth State, adopting the new 
Constitittion, rendered possible the formation of the 
American Union. ProA'idence and other seaports of 
the State were strongly Federal, while the country 
towns were as strongly of the State Rights party. 
When two more States gave in their adlicsion the 
rejoicings were renewed, and so violent was party spirit 
in those days that serious disturbances occurred, and 
the town was at one time threatened (July 4, 1788,) 
with an assault from the excited country people. 
Through the bitter contest which for nearly three years 
distracted the State, Providence sfood firmly for the 
Union, and at last, when, by a close vote, the Federal 
Constitution was finally adopted (May 29, 1790,) in the 
Convention at Newport, " the stillness of the Sabbath 
morning was broken by the joyful roar of artillery ." 

With the close of the war came the revival of com- 
merce. The news of the ratification of peace was 
received at Providence by a vessel direct from London 
(Dec. 2, 1783). In 1787, the trade began with China 



ADDRESS. 29 



and the East Indies, which for more than half a century 
brought great wealth to our merchants. A rolling and 
slitting mill to prepare iron to be made into nails, was soon 
after established in Providence. " Not a hob-nail should 
be manufactured in America," had been tlie threat, to 
accomplish which those repressive measures that pro- 
voked resistance in the colonies had been devised. But 
this had proved a vain threat, for as early as 1721, a 
nail factory had been started at NcAvport, and in 1777, 
it is said, that the first cold cut nail in the world was 
made by Jeremiah Wilkinson, of Cumberland. Hemp 
duck was also made here as early as 1722. encouraged 
by a bounty from the General Assembly. The spinning 
of flax was a universal domestic occupation among 
Avomen of all conditions of life, and to encourage its 
cultivation was the special object of the " Daughters of, 
Liberty " before mentioned. At that time a paper mill 
was established (1766) at OIneyville. The manufacture 
of firearms, and of steel, and the casting of heavy can- 
non became an active industry in Providence and its 
vicinity, shortly before the Revolution. The troops 
were supplied mainly with home-made muskets, as well 
as artillery. Saltpetre works were set up in all the 
towns during the war. Whipple Hall and the brick 
school-house on Meeting street were converted into 
laboratories. Arts gave place to arms, when University 
Hall was used for barracks and the college campus 
became a drill ground. This class of industry closed 



30 CITY DOCUMENT. No. 33. 



witli tlic wiir, to be revived in our own day on a grander 
.scale. Homespun clothes were generally worn and 
American woolen cloths were pn-ferred to foreign f'al)- 
rics. A ]ieop1e who in their hostility to the Stamp Act 
had (liMiied themschcs lami) or mutton, in order to 
foster the incri^ase of wool, and had proscribed tea as a 
beverage in tiiiMr opposition to a tritling tax, were not 
long to 1)0 kept down cmmi 1i\ the depressing condition 
of all'airs in which tin- close of the Uevolution found 
them. Yet how severe was that depression it would 
be diflicult to jiortray. Nothing like it has since be(>n 
seen. .V crusiiing del)t, a yet nioie crushing flood of 
vitiated currency, repudiation, exhaustion, and in the 
sad case of Kiiodc Island, utter istdatiou, bitter factions 
within the State, aversion and contempt outside; pov- 
erty everywhere; distress universal, wliile almost the 
only gleam of light that breaks upon the dark picture 
is to be found in the willing industry of the people 
assiMuing a systenuitic form in the incorporation (March, 
nS9) of the " I'rovidence Association of Mechanics and 
^[anufacturers." To develop the resources of the town 
by oiganiziug its industry and giving a iniited and 
intelligent direction to its scattered forces, was the i)ur- 
pose of this As.sociation ; and nobly was it achieved. 
The cotton manufacture had just been introduced. 
])auicl AuthouN, Andrew Dexter and Lewis I'eck, as 
co-partners, connnenced the business of manufacturing 
jeans in the chand)ers of tlu' old market house (17S7). 



Ai>niiES,s. 31 



The first spinning jenny built in the United States, Avas 
made by them, and had twenty-eight spindles. Such 
was the modest birth of the mighty business which now 
sends its textile fabrics to every quarter of the earth. 
A few thousand pounds of the raw material imported 
chiefly from Surinam, (for the cotton plant had not then 
been introduced to become the staple of our South 
Atlantic and Gulf States), then sufficed for the annual 
consumption of a business which last year required a 
quarter of a million of bales, or nearly fifty thousand 
tons of raw cotton, and which sent out from this market 
alone, in but one branch of the cotton manufacture, the 
single article of print cloths, over 3,300,000 pieces of 
forty yards each, or 13», 000,000 yards — enough to girt 
three times the entire circumference of the globe. The 
value of the print work alone upon this immense pro- 
duct was nearly four millions of dollars. Three years 
later (1790) this machinery was removed to North 
Providence, Avhere the arrival of Samuel Slater, Avith 
his improved machinery, from England, began the suc- 
cessful manufacture of cotton cloth in America. Cal- 
lendering commenced in Providence, in 17b8, and calico 
printing, already started in East Greenwich, Avas intro- 
duced at Providence in 1794. Between the close of the 
Avar and the end of the century, most of the business 
pursuits of the present day had their humble origin. 
A feAV have quite disapjieared after a brief struggle for 
profitable existence, but far more have been added. 



32 CIT Y DOCUMEKT. jS'o. 33. 

Many have transferred their sphere of active operation 
beyond the limits of the city. Avhile owned and managed 
by residents of Providence. Most of the vast mechani- 
cal and manufacturing establishments that have built 
up the large towns and villages on the Blackstone and 
Pawtuxct, making these valleys great hives of industry, 
and an almost unbroken succession of towns, are of this 
character. Our twenty-eight spindles have grown to 
be two millions, of which but a small portion are 
operated within the city.* 

Down to the time of the Revolution the growth of 
churches, like that of population, was extremely slow. 
At that period there were but tive in Providence. The 
I'irst Baptist Church, already referred to, was contem- 
porary with the settlement of the town, and after two 
changes in its place of worship, erected this beautiful 
edifice, which last ye.ar celebrated its centennial. The 
Friends' Society, established in 1701, built on the pres- 
ent site in Meeting street, in 17"2(). St. John's, Episco- 
pal, was formed in 1722, and the original church was 
succeeded by the present one, on the same spot, in 
1811. With these were two Congregational churches, 



* By the census returns for 1S75, Uiere were in Providence and Kent counties 
155,805 spindles employed in woolen manufacture, and 1,504,933 on cotton goods. 
These mills are mainly owned and managed in tins city. The mills owned here, 
hut situated out of ilie State, and which, therefore, do not appear in the Bhode 
Island census returns, would swell the number of spindh'S beyond two millions. 
The spindles now in the city limits employed on woolen goods, number 3!),3(4, on 
cotton 110,879, bring in round numbers 150,000, and the value of their joint product 
was over six millions of dollars. 



ADDItESS. 33 



the first formed in 1720, the second in 1744, which 
latter built on the site of the present church, erected 
in 1808 on Broad street. The former bnilt in 1723, 
on Benefit street, where they remained for seventy 
years, on the corner of (^oUege street, and then 
bnilt on their present site, corner of Benevolent street, 
and rebuilt after a fire in 1814. The old building 
became what was known in our day as " the old town 
house," on the site of the new court house. And here 
1 may say, in passing, that no better illustration can be 
given of the difference between the ancient town and 
the modern city of Providence than is presented by the 
contrast between these two buildings — one poor, plain 
and simple, the other rich, elegant and ornate. A cen- 
tury ago there were five churches to 4,321 people, or 
one to 864. To-day there are seventy-five churches, of 
which eighteen are Baptist, one Friend, eight Congre- 
gational, eleven Episcopal, of the denominations existing 
here in colonial days, and thirty-seven of other denomi- 
nations, all of which, except the First Methodist (1798), 
were organized since 1816.* With 101,000 inhabi- 
tants the proportion is now one to 1,346. 

In 1791, the Providence Bank, the oldest in the 
State, was incorporated with a capital of half a million 
of dollars. It was modelled after the Bank of North 

* Tliere are eleven Metliodist, ten Roman Catholic, three Unitarian, two 
Presbyterian, two Universalist, two Hebrew, one Sweilenborgian, one Latter 
Day Saints, one African Union Church, and one Mariner's Bethel. 
5 



34 CITY D0CU2HEXT. No. 83. 

America in Philadelphia, that monument of the genius 
of Robert Morris, and the first in the country to issue 
bills redeemable in specie on presentation. To-day 
Providence has thirty eight banks, with over eighteen 
millions of capital, four millions of which have been 
added within the last sixteen years. Providence has 
long ranked as the second city in the United States 
in tlic number of its banks, and is now the tiiird 
in the amount of its banking capital. Besides these 
thirty-eight banks, there are now eleven Savings baiiks 
in the city, with an aggregate deposit of twenty-seven 
millions. The first of these in the State and one of the 
oldest in the world (for savings institutions were estab- 
lished in Europe only two years prior to their introduc- 
tion in America), is the Providence Institution for Sav- 
ings, incorporated in 1819, and whose deposits now 
exceed eight millions of dollars. 

Iron, as has been seen, was early wrought in Rhode 
Island, and has now become a vast industry in this city, 
the product of Providence in this metal alone amount- 
ing in the last year to eight and a half millions of dol- 
lars. In the manufacture of screws, Providence leads 
the world, and is little behind in that of arms ; while 
in the infinite variety of tools and machinery there is 
perhaps no city on earth that can rival it, although 
some surpass it in the value of certain special products. 
In jewelry there is but one city in America (Newark, 
N. J.) that exceeds this in the value which our more 



ADDRESS. 35 



than one hundred and fifty firms engaged in that manu- 
facture produce, and which last year amounted to 
nearly six millions of dollars.* In silver ware Provi- 
dence has tlic largest manufactory in the world. 
Forty-five years ago the late Jabez Gorham began 
to make silver spoons, employing ten or twelve men. 
His business prospered, and was gradually extended 
till in 1847 he introduced steam power, and was the 
first man wlio ever employed steam or horse power in 
the working of silver. The Gorham Manufacturing 
Company's products are now known and sold all over the 
world. The five stories of their great establishment 
include over three acres of flooring, and their working 
force, when in full operation, is over four hundred men. 
There are some significant facts connected with the 
Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia, which serve to 
show the relative importance of this city in the indus- 
trial summary of the country. One is that in the three 
principal buildings Providence occupies the central and 
most conspicuous place. We all know the man who 
commands Presidents and Emperors, and they obey 
him — who says to Dom Pedro, " Come," and he 
cometh, and to President Grant " Do this," and he 
doeth it, and we have seen the mighty engine that from 
the centre of Machinery Hall moves fourteen acres of 
the world's most cunning industry. The Corliss engine 

* The exact value of the proiluct of jewelry manufactured in Providence in 
1S75, by the census returns, was $5,933,629. 



36 CITY DOCUMENT. Ko. 33. 

proudly sustains the supremacy of Providence amid the 
marvels of both hemispheres. Facing the central area 
of the main exhibition building, the Gorham Manufac- 
turing Company have their splendid show of silver 
ware around the most superb specimen of the crafts- 
man's art that has ever adorntd any exposition in 
modern times. Under the central dome of Agricultural 
Hall, the Rumford Chemical AVorks present an elabo- 
rate and attractive display of their varied and important 
products, arresting the eye as a prominent object 
among the exhibits of all the world. And when we 
visit the Women's Pavilion we shall see that of all the 
rich embroidery there displayed none surpasses that 
shown by the Providence Employment Society, and 
shall learn that little Rhode Island ranks as the lifth 
State in the amount of its contributions to the fuuds of 
this department, being surpassed only by New York, 
Pennsylvania, Ohio and Massachusetts. A city which 
occupies these positions in the greatest Exposition of 
the century, has no cause to shun comparison between 
its past and its present. 

In the history of Providence the second crushing 
calamity occurred one hundred and forty years after the 
first, in the great gale of 1^1-5, which swept all the 
warehouses on either side below the bridge, destroyed 
a large part of the shipping in port, and nurny import- 
ant buildings. But this disaster now appears as a 
blessing in disguise, since from it resulted the first per- 



ADDRESS. 37 



manent improvement ia the place, the widening of 
AVeybosset bridge, the laung out of South and West 
Water streets, Canal street and the Cove basin. Street 
lamps were introduced in 1821, and these Avere super- 
seded in 1^48 by the general adoption of coal gas. 
The Arcade, with its elegant Ionic collonade of granite 
monoliths, erected in 1828, was the forerunner of a 
new order of tilings, in which architectural taste and 
substantial structures were to replace the low frame 
buildings of a country town. But it was not till 
1841 that this desirable change was fairly begun by 
Mr. Hezekiah Sabin, soon followed by others, till the 
Westminster street of today has come to contrast with 
the same thoroughfare of the olden times as do the 
splendors of ]\Innich with the antique qnaintness of a 
German village. At length the old form of town 
government was outgrown. A serious riot in Septem- 
ber, 1831, which continued for four nights, in which 
seventeen houses were destroyed by the mob, and five 
lives were lost, was suppressed by military force. 
Stimulated by this event Providence adopted a city 
charter, and under the mayoralty of Samuel W. Bridg- 
ham, in June, 1832, entered upon a new career of 
progress. But by far the greatest event, in its bearing 
upon the prosperity of Providence was tlie introduction 
of w^ater, wdiich after being four times defeated by the 
popular vote, was finally adopted in 18(59. Tlie work 
commenced the next vear, and the water was first intro- 



38 c I T Y I) a r jien t . No. 33. 

duced from the Pawtuxet river in November, IbTl. 
The question whether Providence was to become a 
metropolis of trade and manufactures or continue as a 
secondary city, was thus settled in favor of progress. 
The stimulus given in the right direction was immediate 
and immense. The overflow of population soon re- 
quired the city limits to be extended, and the annexa- 
tion of the Ninth and Tenth Wards caused an increase 
of forty-six per cent, from the census of ISIO to that 
of 1875, a showing which no other city in the country 
can equal. 

That the city of Providence has its future in its own 
hands is apparent. With the vast wealth and a:;cumu- 
lated industries of a century at its disposal; with the 
result which this latest measure of improvement has 
produced as an encouragement; and with the experi- 
ence of other less favored seaports as a guide, there 
would seem to be the ability and the inducement to 
take the one remaining step necessary to secure the 
su]iremacy which nature indicates for the head waters 
of Narragansett Bay. \Miile our Northern and West- 
ern railroad connections are already very large and are 
rapidly reaching their requisite extension, there remains 
only the improvement ot the harbor and adjacent 
waters of the bay, Avhich can be made at comparatively 
small expense, to make Providence the commercial 
emporium of New England. There is no mere fancy 
in this idea. It is an absolute fact, attested by the 



ADDRESS. 39 



history of Glasgow, and foreshadowed hy the opinions 
of those who have thought long and carefully on the 
subject. It is a simple question of engineering and of 
enterprise, and it will be accomplished. When Provi- 
dence had twelve thousand inhabitants, as it had within 
the lifetime of many of us who do not yet account our- 
selves as old; had some seer foretold that the Cen- 
tennial of the nation 'vvould see the (|uict town 
transformed into the growing city starting upon its 
second hundred thousand of population, it would have 
seemed a far more startling statement than this with 
which we now close the Centennial Address — that the 
child is already born who will see more than half a mil- 
lion of people vsithin our city, which will then be 
the commercial metropolis of New England. 



POEM 



BV 



G E K G E AV I L L I A M P E T T E S . 



POEM. 



OXCE on a lime, as modern legends say, 
A parson, journeying his accustomed way 
Descried a storm-cloud gatliering o'er his head, 
The menaced promise of an hour of dread. 
Then blew the winds and broke the thunder blast, 
The lightning frolicked and the rain fell fast, 
When, as he neared the church, his purposed bound, 
The fire-flash striking, felled him to the ground. 
Stunned, but not injured be3-ond quick repair 
lie rose and hastened to the temple where 
Though for his sake solicitously stirred, 
His flock assembled to receive the Word. 
Wearied and shattered, frightened and perplexed, 
He spoke a preface, ere he named his text, 
In which he lauded the impulsive play 
Of the fleet fluid in its special way ; 
Thought it, administered for nervous ills 
Not out of place, or given for ague chills ; 
But when applied with such a telling force 
As to upset a rider and his horse 
It might be healthful, but his choice would be 
To pass a life of equanimity ; 



44 CITY DOCVJIEXT. Xo. 33. 

And th;it his accident would hinder speech, 

That in their council he would fear to teach, 

Save that he was a native born and bre<l. 

Whose heart was right, though hnlf his wit had sped. 

In like regard, m3' Pegasus and I 

Charged with our daily liability. 

Were pressing on through fields of love and fame 

Not fearing danger when — ^'our letter came. 

Something recovered from the first effect 

Of the explosive, earnest dialect 

That quick ignored a speculative lode. 

And claimed a Poem, not an Orphic ode ; 

I thought, what can be done, what shall I saj* 

To those who wait on that Centennial daj' ? 

ril tell them of ni}- jealous fear, and then 

I'll claim mj' birthright of Rhode Island men ; 

I'll proudly say, "This is my native State, 

My heart is loyal as her fame is great ; " 

That the light gambols of mj* honest Muse 

Rhode Island men will suffer and excuse. 



There is a word most popular of late 

In use alike by Fashion, Clairch, and State, 

Whose literal significations are 

T' improve the sjstem and its faults repair ; 

To change from bad to better, not to trade 

One sin developed for one newly made. 

" Refor.1i ! " the modern Politicians shout ; 

" Condemn the blunder, turn the blunderer out." 

" Reform 1 " the Priest e.^claims ; " dispense with creeds ; 

Let dogmas yield to grand heroic deeds." 



POEM. 45 

" Reform ! " Socieh" flemands, and names 
The barriers thwarting her ambitious claims. 

A word must designate the party plaj- : 

To-day, Reform ; the Tariff, 3'esterdaj\ 

" James and Reform ! " on blood-red banners flies ; 

' ' John and Reform ! " a green ground occupies ; 

" Charles and Reform ! " an independent few 

In Truth's great cause, announce on heavenly blue. 

Now, while 't is plain, James is the very man 
To change all nature as none other can ; 
While John's experience and transcendent worth 
Fit him alone to rule the solid earth ; 
While Charles exultant, wears perfection's crown 
And justly overawes both James and John ; 
While all defenders of green, red, and blue 
Desire Reform (at least, the}' say they do) ; 
Each one discovers that his neighbor's creed 
Is but the token of some damning deed ; 
That " foul corruption " festers in his brain. 
And death and darkness follow in his train. 

On the same tocsin it was rung of yore, — 
This ancient chime ; we've heard it all before ; 
With the next panic, in the next campaign, 
Fresh, as of old, we '11 hear it all again. 
'T is but the nation's farce ; what now we know 
Of weak foundations, we knew long ago ; 
But still we, passive, build upon the sand, 
And look to see the superstructure stand. 

James wrote his friends of an initial scheme 
That died long since, — its memory is a dream. 



46 CITY DOCUMENT. No. 33. 

A shrewd official hunts the letter up, 

Finds acrid poison in its mouldy- ctip, 

Howls his discovery to all mankind 

And calls his witnesses from farthest Ind. 

" Investigation ! " Press and Place demand ; 

" Investigation ! " lings throughout the land. 

Mountains are moved, the depths of ocean stirred 

T' explain the mj'steiy of a phrase or word ; 

"While James distracted, ceases da3- nor night 

To rue the hour in which he dared to write. 

John once paraded with a temperance league 
And, after, took a glass with Marshal Tcague ; 
Hobnobbed with Richard, kissed Mike's little boy ; 
Gave Tim, the bricklayer, a daj's emplo}'. 
Oh ! better far that Dick and Mike and Tim 
Had ne'er been born, or ne'er been known to him. 
Better that gill of whiskey had been made 
To pay the rate that Government has paid. 
The strict teetotallers of many j-ears. 
Who moisten pledges with canonic tears. 
Have read John's secret, and, from everj' pump 
Stand rcadj' on his theories to jump. 

Charles, college-bred, in j-outh essaj'ed to speak 
Sophoclean stanzas in their native Greek ; 
With Virgil journeyed, and with Horace sang 
The odes which erst from Sabine villa rang. 
He saw the tall Sallustian gardens wave, 
And read their moral at the historian's grave. 
Familiar with the deeds of every age. 
Patriot and seer, philosopher and sage, 
Th' eternal law to him unfolds the plan 



POEM. 47 

That guides and governs Nature's nobleman. 
Upright in business, true to everj- trust, 
Bj- grand consent his surname is, " The Just." 
Proudly he wears his honors, fairly won — 
What room for such a man in Washington? 

Time was that men, somewhat insanely, thought 
They had a right to propcrt3' they bought ; 
That such as had no land or titled sway 
Should not make laws to take their own awaj" ; 
That no rash stranger, in Kilkenny coat, 
Should land one da}', and on the morrow vote. 
They built the colleges, endowed the schools. 
And felt that aliens should not make the rules. 
But wlien Reform her brazen trombone blew, 
And heralded the doctrines that were new. 
Partly from cowardice, but more from pride. 
The men who should have sta^-ed her, stood aside. 
Onward she passed, — with joy the showman feels. 
When thousand idiots dog his chariot wheels ; 
No lack of leaders, 'mong the raotlej' crowd 
Who waved their caps, and called her name aloud. 
Later, the programme has been much the same ; 
All now have grown familiar with her name. 
If men are wanted to advance her cause, 
To prate of service, as thej- break the laws. 
The time is quite prolific in her need ; 
It raised up Sweenj- ; the fat cherub, Tweed ; 
It gave them lawj'ers to defend their fraud ; 
It gave them ships to waft them safe abroad ; 
It gives their fiiithful parasites to stand 
Within the loftiest temples of the land. 



48 CITY DOCUMENT. No. 33. 

The modern game, in which reformers plav, 

Is not progressive, owns no gradual swa3-. 

IconocListic in its quick pretence, 

It holds no converse with mere common-sense. 

The negro thanks the jieople who have freed 

Tlie negro race. Noiv, let the negro lead. 

You have done nothing for his sweet content 

Until you make the negro, President. 

Of course, 3'ou sandwich him in railroad cars, 

But mix him livelii in your caucus jars. 

You once did wrong ; now do nuich more than right ; 

For what the Lord made black, Reform makes white. 

When Luther turned reformer, fought the Pope, 
And gave the Christian world a conscious hope. 
His was no cheap religion, to be bought 
By only doing what good morals taught. 
He had not flung his glove before the face 
Of king and emperor, to purchase grace. 
He knew the charter that salvation brings 
Bears the true signet of the King of Kings. 
Modern reformers must be very good. 
And live on moral, intellectual food. 
Their ethics compass a familiar plan : 
They do not need the Saviour, but tlie Man ; 
A generous movement made, Christ is not named 
* To bless the enter] uise in which 't is framed. 
'T is quite sufficient tliat they go on guard. 
And Heaven must give their prowess its reward ; 
As if a deed could heavenward be driven 
Without the high authority of Heaven ! 
Still, in their temples, all unseen, He pleads ; 
Still sweetly ministers, to su))ply their needs. 
They think, at times, He calls on them to come : 



POEM. 49 

At times the}- think He spealvs of Heaven and Home. 
Alas ! tlie3' worship in a Church so broad 
That, from its transept, none can hear the Lord. 

The pleasant, secular preaching of the day 
(If that be preaching, that is words at plaj') 
Contents not those with consecration rife 
AVhose souls are hungry- for the Bread of Life. 
All things in time and in their proper place : 
On week-days pitch the ball, describe the race. 
Talk of conventions, journeys, parties, rides, 
Of picnics, concerts, everything besides 
Ou week-day evenings, in the lecture hall, 
And drew the happ}- moral from them all ; 
But on the Sabbath of the Lord thj- C4od, 
Eemember Ilim, and sound His praise abroad. 

Fashion is full of change that is not gain, — 

Would, that, like Lear, she'd part with half her train, — 

Her love is law, as all her followers find. 

E'en to the half afflicted, half resigned. 

Who, while decision's instant, august right 

Is shut in panniers from her lover's sight. 

Smooths the black ruffles of a dark despair. 

And hangs the gleaming bow of promise there. 

Centuries agone, the Dane to Osric said, 
" Your bonnet to its use ; 't is for the head." 
If Ilanilet, thinking the court fop to save 
From influenza, the true order gave. 
For what we call a bonnet, no one knows 
Antiphrasis more actual to propose. 
A bonnet was a covering, of felt, 
Of Danish kirlin, or of Scottish kelt, 
7 



50 CITY DOCUMENT. No. 33. 

Of Genoa velvet, or of Gallic silk, 

Of satin, cicpo, with trimmings of that ilk. 

From hoods like hods, from Leghorn lanes, the face 

Came careful forth, all canoined in lace. 

Now, no opposing fabiic intervenes 

Between our ejes and all the sunnnit scenes. 

Far in the background we behold emerge 

'Mong woodbines clambering to its loftiest verge 

The shield of chi|)s, that lifts itself in air. 

Bolted, by magic, to the hindmost hair. 

Remembering all our wonder at the show, 

We place ihe costume of not long ago 

In size and contour as St. Peter's dome, 

B}- the stern, modern pull-back of our home ; 

The fort^v skirts, whose substitute is one. 

The mighty hoops, whose substitute is none. 

Deem it not stylish to diminish all 

The requisites for party, street, or ball ; 

Boot-heels are higher, gloves as long again. 

Where once was worn one bracelet, there are ten, 

As manj- silver bands doth fashion claim 

As there are letters in my darling's name. 

And whore once rested an encircling zone 

A narrow silken belt of tractile tone, 

Note, as the acme of reforming taste, 

The monster trunk-strap round my lady's waist I 

"While dullness broods o'er all the Christian climes 
And Faith is earnest in the " better times," 
Long promised, long deferred, the star of Hope 
Seems distant still in this new Century's scope. 
Patience ! Perhaps for us the hour is near 



roEM. 51 

111 which Eefonn shall run her new career ; 

When felons, resident in foreign lands, 

Are homeward hurled, if Government demands ; 

AVhen no cheap pardons, by wealv President, 

Are to convicted counterfeiters sent ; 

AVhen uo trained gambler with his stocks or dice 

Pla3-s in the Nation's halls his game of vice ; 

Wlien no brief visitor or common clown 

Pretends to change the laws, or vote them down ; 

When he who sells a vote or he who bu3-s 

Shall suffer scorn and slight from people's ej-es ; 

AVhen, in high places, crime does not require 

Investigation till the laws expire ; 

AVhen, if a saddened secretary's wife 

Avows the venal business of her life. 

She cannot trample out the mischief done 

In Fort Sill contracts, with boots number one; 

When, 'stead of green slips, handled to a brown, 

AVith silver tablets we are loaded down ; 

When the long greenbacks we once loved to hold 

Shall be transmuted into circlet gold ; 

AA'hcu manl^' women shall have all they ask, 

And leave their own, to do their husband's task ; 

When all the Bridgets and the Margaret Anns 

March to the polls, and beat their big tin pans ; 

AA'"hen men may smoke, whene'er thej- deem it meet 

In proper places, — never in the street ; 

AVhen horse-car tourists shall take thought, and stop 

Not on th' ascending grade, but at the top ; 

AVhen meddling pastors don't escape the stocks. 

And quacks are shot for lettering nature's rocks ; 

AVhen slashing Pomero^', whom the law's abuse 

By cheap reformers, would at once let loose 



52 CITY DOCUMEXT. No. 33. 

To thin, like Ilcrod of the Jewrj- wrong, 
The surplus population while 't is young ; 
Shall swing, like Ilaman, forty cubits high. 
And all such imps shall bear him company ; 
When some rare justice visits Plymouth Church, 
That left a senior member in llie lurch, 
Who, in his zealous love for virtuous acts, 
Contrives at last to reach the " bottom facts." 



What of the City that, from year to year. 
Honors its knight without reproach or fear? 
Wiio gave the Union, at her quick command, 
Captains, to lead the armies of the land? 
Who march to-day where Earth's insignia blaze. 
And fear no challenge, thougli the Nations gaze? 

Be not oppressed, fair Cit3-, noble State, 
That landed neighbors will not call you great ; 
'T is men 3-ou boast, not acres. Men, wlio hold 
Fast by the precepts that their sires have told. 
Let others count their ever-valiant names. 
Whose memories their country's are, and fame's. 
Read from yo\w starry roll-call, one by one. 
And match their proudest champions, son for son. 
Not alwa^'s they who claim the numerous host, 
Or haughtiest volume, can the victory boast. 
The broad Philistine beamed disdainful ire. 
But, mark the sequel ! David slew Goliah. 
Tlie bulkiest bins dispense not sweetest food. 
But are themselves recipients of good. 



roE.v. 53 



She, who would fain consult the general weal, 
With little leaven, leavened all the meal. 

Where wiile-moudied fountains 'tween their close-shut teetli 

Hiss the swift spraj- that stirs the pool beneath, 

Enter the hall where power and beauty- vie 

To conquer fame, in generous rivalrj- ; 

Where Afric's diamonds lose their yellow stains, 

And massive tusks unbend in shining chains ; 

Where Asia's wools cast down their whitest plumes 

To pave the chambers of ennobling looms ; 

Where Europe's vaunted, legendan- steel 

Is rolled in ribbons on the polished reel ; 

Where States and Countries of this Western Land 

Their wealth contribute with unsparing hand. 

And, as the hammer falls, or shuttle flies 

Change crude creations to rare symmetries : 

There, where ten thousand wheels are swiftly whirled 

Ehode Island's engine drives the harnessed world. 

This is the Nation's hour. From sea to sea 
Floats the proud Flag, the emblem of the Free ; 
Which, nor in foreign, nor in civil war, 
Has never lost, shall never lose, a star. 
Come Carolina, for the feast is spread ; 
Advance with patriot will, with loyal tread ! 
AVe clasp the hand that you in love extend ; 
Ours the embrace of no uncertain friend. 
Come, as of old j-ou came, and nevermore 
Raise j'our rebellion on Columbia's shore ! 
For, by the echo of that dreadful blow 
B^- Cataliue dealt, received b}* Cicero ; 
By those sad Meccas sought bj" Christian feet 



54 CITY DOCUMENT. No. 33. 

AVhore iiiinual garlands deck each green retreat, 
B^- those dear graves with Memory's tear-drops wet 
We will forgive, we never will forget. 

"What is the moral of the passing hour? 

Reform is Education's practised power. 

No sect, no people, can be trnl}- free, 

Who have not earned the right to liberf\-. 

Wh:it claim has he, or black, or brown, or white. 

To vote the ballot that he cannot write? 

Of what avail the politicians' creed 

Before the ej'es of him who cannot read? 

Save by the doubtful lore of hearsay' sense, 

What can he know of valued evidence? 

Whj' Colon crossed the wave, why Adams spoke, 

Why Lawrence fell, why Lincoln bondage broke? 

Men are born equal, — so the record reads 

That chronicles of George the naughty deeds, 

And claims th' Almighty improvised the strain, — 

But did He promise thej- should so remain ? 

'T is not with babies that opinion deals, 

But men who make their marks, or set their seals. 

Is he whose soul is soiled l\v murderous taint, 

Or larceny's stain, the equal of the saint? 

The man of golden, he of brazen fame. 

Because they both were born, are both the same ? 

We quote high precedent for jealous rule 

That bars the impious knave, the drivelling fool ; 

" Not every one that crieth ' Lord,' " shall come 

To know the splendors of the immortals' home. 

The folded banner maj- not float again 
With maudlin motto, " Principles not Men." 



roEM. 55 

Ye men of age, j'e men of vigorous youth, 
The priuci[)le of principles, is Truth ! 
Whence shall that principle its power derive, 
Save from its index representative? 
Say that tiie worlds in heavenl3- order roll, 
But what were order did not God control ? 

Eeform is patient, or 't is nothing worth. 
God made not in one daj- snn, sea and earth. 
Not he who fractures, the reformer is. 
But he whose wisdom binds the unities. 
Not the bold woman, who unsexes life, 
But'she who works the love that conquers strife. 

In this, the Nation's grand Centennial hour 

'T is well you act jour part and feel jour power ; 

Mature and strong, it is her franchise now 

Before no majesty of earth to bow. 

No might ])revails her steadfast will to move, 

Fixed in the justice of her parent love. 

While each maintains an independent tone 

Her several States combine to act as one ; 

Each wears distinction's laurel, each makes claim 

For separate cause, to bear an honored name. 

Men of Rhode Island ! in this new-born age. 

Prize at its worth your glorious heritage ; 

With grateful hearts, with conscious pride elate 

Remember, yours was Roger Williams' State ! 

And, in the truth that God and men approve, 

Revere the emblems of her holy love ; 

Her radiant baud about her anchor twine. 

Her Hope supernal, and her Faith divine. 



THE CITY OF PROVIDENCE. 



MUNICIPAL CELEBRATION, JULY 4TH, 1876. 



ORDER OF EXERCISES . 

AT THE FIRST BAPTIST MEETING HOUSE. 



MUSIC BY HERRICK'S BRIGADE BAND. 

I'RAYKl! BY KEV. E. H. JOIIXSOS. OF THE BROWN ST. BAPTIST CHURCH. 

SINGING BY THE CHOIR. 

rXDEI! THE DIRECTIOS OF E. K. GLEZES, ESQ. 

"O come hillier .mil behold the works of the Lord." 

HEADING OF THE DECL.4.RATI0N OF INDEPENDENCE, 
By Master George W. Field, of the Providence High School. 

SINGING BY THE CHOIR, "THE STAR SP^VXGLED BANNER." 

ORAJION, 
By Hon. Samuel G. Arnold. 

MUSIC BY HERRICK'S BRIGADE BAND. 

POEM, 
By George W. Pette.s, Esq. 

SINGING BY THE CHOIR, "WIIITTIER'S CEXTENNIAI, HYMN." 
Music by JOHN K. Paine. 

(As sung at th« onenlng of ihtf Centennial Exposition at PltilHdotphiM.) 

Our Father's God ! from out whose hiind Thou who hrtst here in concord furled 
The centuries fall like grains of sand! The war flags of a gathered world, 
We meet to-day, united, free. Beneath our western skies fulfill 

And loyal to our land and Thee, The Orient's mission of good will. 

To thank Thee for the era done. And freighted with love's golden fleece, 

.\nii trust Thee for the opening one. Send back the Argonauts of peace. 

Here where of old by Thy desigu. For art and labor meet in truce, 

The fathers spake that word of Thine For beauty made the bride of use. 

Whose echo is the glad refrain We ihank Thee, while withal we crave. 

Of Tended bolt and fulling chain. The austere virtues strong to save. 

To grace our festal time ami all The honor proof to place or gold, 

Tlie xones of eartli our guests we call. The manhood never bought or sold ! 

Bf with us while the New World greets Oh make Thou us through centuries long. 
The Olil World thronging all its streets. In peace serene, and justice strong; 
Unveiling all the triumphs won Around our gift of freedom draw 

By art or toil beneath the sun ; The safeguards of Thy righteous law, 

.■\nd unto common good ordain And cast in some diviner mould. 

This rivalship of htind aud brain. Let the new cycle shame the old. 

BENEDICTION. 



1876.] 



CITY DOCUMENT. 



[No. 



THE PROGRESS OF PROVIDENCE. 



A CENTENNIAL ADDRESS 



ClTIZEftS OF PROVIDENCE, R, 1. 



liv HON. SAJIUEL GREENE ARNOl.D. 



WITH A POEM, 



J5v GEORGE WILLIAM P K T T K S . 



Delivered .July 4th, is70. 







PROVIDENCE : 

lRO\IDENCE rEESS CO., PRINTERS TO THE CITV. 
1876. 



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